Savile Row gives way to dress-down Friday..

[LondonLuke]

...was the title of an article in Wednesday's copy of The Times. I was unable to find thed online version, so have provided a few quotes of an article I am sure many of the gentlemen here will agree with.


"Do appearences count any more in public life? The formality and elegance so often associated with official British sartorial codes in the past have no place in our undeferential times."

"The drama and romance of traditional uniform has been jettisoned gradually for a banal and cowardly version of uniformity. In the Square Mile the rot set in when the last bowler hat was hung up during the financial and social turbulence of the early 1970s. Smart city suiting, the subtle Savile Row armour associated with the old-fashioned chivalric values of the merchant bank, gave way either to the scuffed black shoes and sagging thin black socks of Big Bang deregulation, ERM humiliation, and latterly the Credit Crunch, or the indignities of dress-down Fridays imposed by American management theorists. Chinos and an unbuttoned gingham shirt inspire neither confidence nor respect."


"As I watched those made jobless by the collapse of Lehman Brothers commiserating in Canary Wharf, I was struck by the way in which the powerful image of the City Trader has fallen prey to the homogenising effects of sartorial globalisation. Interviews with traders experiencing the same loss in New York revealed identical "smart-casual" wardrobes."


These are a few excerpts from an article by Christopher Breward on how the informality has now reached British courts, with Judges no longer allowed to wear the traditional wigs and wing collars.

 

[Edward]

Chnages in court dress codes have been debated for a very long time. Some believe that the traditional costume was intimidating for too many regular folks, others that it lent the appropriate air of gravitas to proceedings. I likeed the pageantry of it myself, though I'm sure in these dark financial times the average trainee barrister would be delighted by the idea of not having to fork out about GBP300 on the wig alone.... Wigs and gowns have been absent in juvenile courts for a very long time - it was inevitable that this would spread sooner or later. The new changs, it should be noted, are limited to civil courts - criminal cases will retain the full works.

On the matter of casual Friday, I always found that rather an alien concept. It reminded me of nothing so much as the last day of term at school, when you got to wear your own clothes and bring in a game. I seem to remember reading a lot of articles maybe two years ago suggesting that most City offices were reversing that trend, a popular development among many workers who found the dress code confusing.

Personally, though I work in an environment which is pretty casual a lot of them time (academia), I have come to prefer to keep standards on the up - today is the most dress down I've been in a long time, in an open neck shirt, Wested Indy trousers, brown shoes, AN6552 and a fedora. Usuaully I would at least have a cravat on, if not a four in hand; the jacket is a concession to it being cold enough for a coat rather than a blazer, but still not quite cold enough for both. I do often find myself much more productive when fully dressed, for some reason. [huh] The comments quoted above are very interesting - a touch dogmatic, maybe, but certainly not without much basis in truth.

 

[LondonLuke]

Although barristers are apparently retaing the use of wigs, whereas judges won't, which I found to be rather suprising.

 

[Edward]

Ah, I thought they were all dropping the wigs for civil court use. Must have misread. Yes, that surprises me too - I'd have thought that if anyone was going to keep them, it would be the judge. Maybe the idea is to make the judge seem less intimidating - especially to the defendant (and therefore less likely to be viewed as partisan?). Interesting.

Of course, in the US they've not had wigs etc since.... well, I think since they went out of fashion. It'd be interesting to see a study of the psychological difference that makes to all concerned in similar court cases...

Back more on track, I'm not sure that the correlation between more casual dress and leaner economic times is necessarily anything more than coincidence - after all, the 30s were tight for many. It'll be interesting, though, to see if we see the emergence of more 'compromise clothing' wardrobes - the sort of smart casual stuff that could be adapted / accessorised to be worn both in the office and casually, if folks are finding money tight and therefore can't afford a wardrobe of the expanse that they might otherwise opt for. So maybe, now I reason it out, there might be a correlation of sorts....

Sometimes I think the casualisation of society in general is a bad thing, sometimes not.... what I do find a shame is that it has led so many people to view suit and tie as, at best, a necessary evil on some occasions, and the whole idea of knowing when to dress appropriately has gone out the window for so many. [huh]